Tsuruhashi
18798 Brookhurst St
Fountain Valley
714-593-8393
Tsuruhashi is a Japanese BBQ place. I have been told to order their beef. So I did, well what they had.
I wanted the Kobe cap rib eye, $18.95. BUT they were out of it. This is on Monday at 7pm and they opened at 5pm? Did they not get a resupply order earlier? I mean how can you be out of it. They were also out of the Kobe boneless short rib, $15.95. So I got the Kobe bonelss short rib, $9.25. There was a good amount of marbling on the beef. So that's a good sign. When you're ordering Kobe beef and you don't see a lot of white, you need to send it back. These short ribs, I still don't know the difference between the one I ordered and the once that were priced at $15.95.
But they grilled up pretty well, even though parts of the grill didn't get as hot as others. Once grilled, they were pretty flavorful and tender. A good cut of Kobe beef at a pretty good price.
I was still hungry so I got the outside skirt, USDA prime, $7.25. This again had good marbling and grilled up well. Once grilled I was impressed with tenderness and flavor. They beef isn't marinated at all so if you want flavor you can dip it into the sauces they provide or get soy sauce.
Service was good and bad. We had a party of six people. The server was kind enough to give each of us seperate checks. But they were very slow in getting our order. There was a table of ten people who ordered after us but got their food before us. I mean it's only raw meat. All you need to do is make it look nice on a plate and serve it up. How long can that take? But our drinks were refilled quickly and they did take away plates. But just getting our food took forever.
I'm not sure if I would go back to Tsuruhashi. I did like the Kobe beef. But how can they be out of the best cut so early? I think it's pretty expensive for the amount of beef you get, so I'm not going back without them having Kobe rib eye. I would rate this a 7 or 8.
